


Gandanponra V3: Off-key Performance

by Rat_Dance



Series: Gandanponra [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Crack, I Don't Even Know, I Offer No Explanation Or Apology, One Shot, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29780619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rat_Dance/pseuds/Rat_Dance
Summary: The V3 Killing Game was going to be great. Now? A liar thinks he’s a super hero, an aikido master betrays her own gender and the robot is saying some pretty anthrophobic things. Kaede just wishes they’d shut up already.(Opposite Personalities AU)
Series: Gandanponra [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188809
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	Gandanponra V3: Off-key Performance

Being the most popular show on the planet certainly made it a sought-after option for internships, and Kichi certainly felt lucky to be picked. Heh, almost like she was a lucky student or something! Although, there hasn’t been one of those since season 41, and it didn’t look like there would be one in 53 either. The talents of the sixteen participants had already been published beforehand, but the studio had stopped issuing complete character bios around twenty seasons ago to help build the surprise.

So far, her tour had taken her all over the main studio headquarters, but their next stop was what she had been waiting for all along. The Flashback Light coding room was filled with monitors, and Kichi couldn’t help but marvel at the technology. It was almost frightening in a way, something straight out of the brainwashing tech from Another Episode, The End of Hope’s Peak, or Despair’s Counterattack! Of course, this was all legal, the participants consented to the procedure and their new personalities were fictitious. The deaths of game participants was nothing more than allowed destruction of company property. Still, she was curious about how exactly the tech could instill new personalities.

“So I understand how the personalities are ingrained through being beamed into the person, but how are they loaded onto the light in the first place?”

Her guide chuckled and led Kichi to a monitor. 

“Truthfully, a large part of it is loading the backstory. People are shaped by their pasts, after all, so we first load the data of their lore and abilities first. The personalities themselves are a second step, and it’s more accurate to call it tweaking the original personality instead of making up a new one. The Mastermind and secondary writers of each season make the characters to fit the actors, after all. Make them too different, and who knows how the mind will react, they could turn erratic or unpredictable! For the most part, the adjusted personalities serve to instill in them the senses necessary for characters in the killing game.”

“Oh? What does that mean, exactly?”

“Think about it. We live in a time where crime is at an all time low. Some might feel conditioned by our society to never resort to murder, which would make for a boring show. Alternatively, and the bigger concern, is that usually our participants are fans whose personalities would make them the type to jump to murder too quickly, and the game ends too soon. We need to warp the ideals of our characters to fit the mindset of humans at around the start of last century, and we need to alter their personalities to fit the characters. The characters are very different from their actors in mindset and persona, but their attitudes and emotions tend to be similar to help the adjustment process.”

Her guide opened up a file on the computer and showed it to her, revealing a mess of personality stats and reactionary data. He pointed at the screen.

“This here? This is an example of what we call ‘trash data’. The coders take a look at what the Mastermind wants for the season and what our psychologists have seen from the participants’ behavior, and construct what the least desirable outcome would be, to contrast the perfected final result.”

“Sounds complicated, and like a lot of extra work.”

He laughed. “Most of the coders actually find it a fun little hobby. Messing around, inverting the concepts of the characters into something absurd. But thank goodness these are joke concepts, eh?”

The two laughed and continued on their tour, not noticing a frantic technician rushing past. He had forgotten to load the Flashback Lights, and if this even so much as risked delaying the season it was his ass on the line. 

“Come on come on come on come on come on!”

Luckily there was a computer already opened and logged in, with the personality data open. Uttering a quick, quiet prayer, the technician checked to verify that the files totaled 16 and were marked for each character in the new season. After verifying this, he loaded the files onto a disc and then put said disc into the Flashback Light machine with a sigh of relief.

Danganronpa was perhaps the most innovative television franchise in history. Unfortunately, something that it was forced to do without because of this innovative format was rehearsals. And so, no one at Team Danganronpa headquarters realized something was amiss until it was already too late...

* * *

Kaede Akamatsu did not want to be here in this courtroom. Even putting aside the danger, it was way too crowded. The other Ultimates were loud and energetic and pushy while she was not at all the kind of person equipped to take charge and help settle things down. This was why she didn’t perform a lot in public, she played piano for herself and herself alone. She didn’t mind others hearing recordings of her but her stage fright was overbearing and so were people and she just wanted this to stop already.

She breathed in and out several times to attempt to calm the pit in her stomach but all this did was result in her hyperventilating. She hadn’t managed to compose herself until after Monokuma’s opening remarks. 

“Hmm, Kaede, are you alright, dear?”

She looked up and nodded reluctantly. “Y-Yeah. Thanks, er, Maki.”

The Ultimate Assassin smiled motherly at her, but all it did was make her feel even more uncomfortable. It had been this way ever since the girl’s true talent had been revealed to the rest of the class, and what’s worse, the lack of remorse or even the slightest change in the fake Caregiver’s attitude served to underline how abnormal she was. Could she be the Blackened this time? She certainly was capable of cold blooded murder...

The Ultimate Astronaut seemed to think so, too. “I wouldn’t get too close to her, Kaede. That killer probably took out Kiyo!”

“Oh, I’m being suspected because of my talent? How exciting!”

The astronaut’s face reddened. “It’s not exciting you demented freak! I knew I was right not to trust you!”

The Ultimate Robot scoffed. “Please, you haven’t trusted anyone the entire time you’ve been here. Losing your cool like that, how like a stupid organic.”

A girl was politely raising her hand and looking more and more anxious as no one paid her any mind. Kaede really didn’t want to draw attention to herself and call out to her though, but luckily someone else stepped up in her stead.

“We’re all expected to contribute, Miu. You don’t need permission to talk.”

The inventor shifted under the weight of the attention and awkwardly coughed into her fist. “Er, thanks Kokichi. I was just going to point out Kiibo really hasn’t trusted any of us either. In fact, he’s made it clear he hates all of us, couldn’t he be the culprit this time?”

The android in question scowled. “You... you dare accuse me?! The superior being? Apologize at once! I would not dare dirty myself with the likes of you meatsacks!”

Like clockwork, when backed into a corner the inventor finally showed her hidden backbone as she straightened to glare at Kiibo. “You don’t have an alibi for Kiyo’s death! Maybe you aren’t the Blackened but logically you could be!”

“Pssh. ‘Logic’, she says. As a superior being, I need only rely on my own assurances, and so should you all. I am not the killer, and the only proof I need is my word. But fine, fritter away your short life spans suspecting me.”

Kaede sighed quietly to herself. This was going to be another long trial, wasn’t it? She wasn’t the only one annoyed, either. Tsumugi’s veins were threatening to pop out of her head. Then again, the girl always seemed pissed off. It was a good thing she was so take-charge and could help get things back on track.

“Alright everybody! Will you all just shut up for five fucking seconds?! We need to talk about the murder weapon! Kaede, you’re up!”

The pianist recoiled as the attention was once more on her. Why did the cosplayer keep pushing all these responsibilities onto her during the trials?! 

“Um, K-Kiyo was strangled with a cord, right?”

Tenko made a ‘tsk’ing sound. “That much was obvious, you useless woman. Why don’t you leave this to the men before you embarrass yourself too much.”

“Oh for- you’ve got tits too, Miss Ogynist!l”

“S-Shut up Shirogane! Do you suffer womanly hysteria or something?”

A short redhead giggled at the exchange. “Wowee! Tensions sure are rising high this time, huh? Pumps! Me! Up!”

A green haired giant pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked up from his pinning board where he had been carefully dissecting a beetle with miniature tools. The intelligence in his eyes seemed to greatly contrast with his outfit, made up of loincloths that seemed to fit some kind of wild man. He exhaled through his nose and laid his tools down.

“Miss Yumeno. I would appreciate it if you would kindly lower your volume by several decibels if possible. It is extremely difficult to concentrate on my studies with all this hullabaloo.”

“Whaaaaaat?! You’re practicing entomology right now? What about Kiyo, he’s dead you know!”

“Regrettable, I shall admit. Mr. Shinguji was a tolerable fellow, with a sort of calming presence about him. Yet his death is no more meaningful to me than Mr. Amami’s or Miss Tojo’s. We are all mere acquaintances of shared misfortune, and I do not wish to present myself as some sort of scoundrel in saying so but I feel I must stress my lack of involvement in the affairs of my co-prisoners. My work, on the other hand, is the lifeblood of my calling as a scholar. To be distracted from my work, even in matters of such grave importance such as these, is simply impermissible.”

Himiko pouted, before taking on a pondering look. “Hm, I wonder if I should spend the trial thinking of my magic tricks then. See, there’s this one where I pretend to walk through a wall, but really I’m using the lights to play with shadows to create an illusion.”

Miu blinked. “I really don’t think you should be spoiling stuff like that as a magician.”

“More importantly,” Tsumugi stressed. “We all need to be working together on this! Come on guys, put your brains together, this is definitely solvable if you just try!”

A brooding figure perched on his podium. “Do not tremble at the Blackened’s wicked deeds, my friends. I will not stop until justice is served.”

Kaito raised an eyebrow. “You’re really still pretending to be a hero or something? Grow up, Kokichi.”

Kaede involuntarily felt her gaze fall on the one student who hadn’t contributed to the conversation, content to sit back and watch it all unravel with that unsettling lopsided grin on his face. She swallowed, and then called out.

“S-Shuichi? You probably know something, right?”

The other students quieted down, and looked at the detective with looks ranging from distrust to caution. For his part, the boy drank in the attention, and gave a lazy laugh.

“I guess I might have figured some things out on my own. Like, say, exactly who the culprit is and how they did it.”

There was some more murmuring before Kaito scowled.

“As if, you’re just an apprentice detective, right? He’s just fucking with us like last time, or trying to bluff the culprit again.”

Shuichi’s smile grew. “Aw, here you all go making me out to be some kind of shady guy. I’m just trying to get to the truth, you know?”

“At the expense of everything else,” Kokichi growled. “Dredging up everyone’s secrets, interfering in the crime scenes to deepen the mystery. Men like you are the weeds choking society.”

“Hey now, I thought super heroes liked detectives?”

“Only when they serve justice, not their own morbid interests!”

The detective nodded. “That’s fair. Hey, if you guys don’t want my help, I’m fine with shutting up for the rest of it.”

Tsumugi loudly swore under her breath before pointing at Shuichi. “No, you’re going to help us out! Damnit, fine, what is it you’ve figured out?”

Kaede stiffened as the detective’s gaze fell on her and he tilted his hat, obscuring his expression from the rest of the class save for his smile.

“Well, I think it’s something Kaede’s already figured out, right? Was that cord really the murder weapon?”

As Kaede tried to decipher what Shuichi meant, a certain Cosplayer was fuming at these changes to her script. And in the outside world?

V3’s “innovative character changes” were being called one of the highlights of the last ten seasons.

**Author's Note:**

> Hooh, one more time. Back with a new rhyme. Hey, here we go again. Please God let it end.
> 
> Hope you... enjoyed(?) the sequel to Gandanponra, applying the same concept to the V3 cast was fun for a one-shot. Will I do the same for Goodbye Despair? Honestly, don’t know, but I’m still happy for the attention the first Gandan got.
> 
> As for the students deceased in this one-shot, yup, Rantaro the super not-suspicious guy still died first, but this time he was actually killed by the chapter 1 Blackened. Man, Ryoma doesn’t mess around. He had the strongest desire to kill and escape out of everyone. Ryoma despised being a prisoner and thought if he escaped the killing game he could take a new identity and play tennis again. 
> 
> The chapter 2 victim was Kirumi, the surprisingly rude and selfish maid, who was taken out by Angie. Angie lived in constant fear of the judgement of her island’s satanic figure Atua, and the other students would frequently invoke Atua’s name to manipulate her into doing things for them. Unfortunately, Angie’s paranoid delusions of Atua eventually drove her to murder as she believed sacrificing Kirumi and the rest of the class was the only way to appease Atua from exterminating her people.
> 
> As for Kork, the chapter 3 victim, he was the most charming and extroverted of the group, his hidden disdain for humanity’s actions throughout history his only real eccentricity. Who killed him? I dunno, but if it was a girl Tenko’s gonna break some bones before Monokuma can get his paws on the Blackened. That’s all for this time, see ya.


End file.
